Our ancestors expelled colonial rulers in 1947 after great struggle and sacrifices so that people could freely live in peace in line with Islamic values of freedom, equality and justice, but oppressors rule through their proxies, the corrupt ruling elite. We must break all the shackles of slavery, regain independence and dignity! We have enormous potentials,reject plunderers and support competent and honest leadership. Freedom is Priceless

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The news that Imran Khan launched an anti-corruption manifesto at a rally of over 100,000 in Karachi yesterday, as a lead up to campaigning for the 2013 elections, filled me with a sense of hope. But a last hope, as Pakistan now hangs by a thread. From assassinations to suicide bombings, corruption to terrorism, little seems to be going well. keep reading >>>>

Thousands of people, including women and children, on Sunday converged near the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah for Imran Khan's massive "tsunami" rally seeking a "change" in the country.

26 December 2011 KARACHI - Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has pledged that if people reposed confidence in him he would guarantee establishing an Islamic welfare state in the country.

“Our party’s sole objective will be to make Pakistan a country where all nationals will be equal in the eyes of justice unlike today where poor are behind the bars while corrupt people enjoy freedom,” thundered the cricketer-turned-politician on Sunday while addressing one of the biggest rallies witnessed in Karachi.

Imran said he had already formed a committee headed by Jahangir Tareen to work on priority basis to formulate a policy on how to eliminate rampant corruption that was costing Rs3 billion to the national exchequer daily.

The PTI leader also announced the next stop of tsunami will be Balochistan capital Quetta on March 23, 2012, and “I will personally apologise to Balochi people for the excesses committed by the present and past rulers,” he said.

Imran also said that “days of the corrupt Zardari government were numbered and our first priority will be to take action against those people who are involved in corruption,” he said.

Former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Javed Hashmi, who joined the PTI on Saturday, said thousands of people who have gathered here made up of the young generation of Pakistan is the harbinger of a revolution

“Today is the birthday of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. When he made this country, he wanted to ensure justice for Muslims of the subcontinent. Justice was his slogan and movement for justice is Imran’s slogan. This is why we have come forward to provide justice. It is the youth of this country who will achieve that.”

Hashmi said that when he was considering joining the PTI, he was humbled by Imran’s invitation. “For the first time, a leader said to me that I have never gone to ask anyone to join the party but I have come to you and not for myself but for Pakistan. How could I say no to him?”

“Now, I hand over you my 40 years of hard work. No one can raise questions over financial, social and political matters throughout my career or doubt my dedication to this country.”

Earlier, Shah Mehmood Qureshi declared that today’s caravan had come out to save Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan and one could see Pathan, Seraiki, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Urdu-speaking people have come together. “The broken heart has been fixed.”

He said that Karachi reflects the face of Pakistan and the country’s prosperity and stability was directly linked to that of Karachi’s. “Every institution is facing a downfall but all this can be turned around. For this you will have to elect an honest leadership. Today’s judiciary has buried the doctrine of necessity for good and,” he stated.

The mammoth rally was also entertained by musician Salman Ahmed who played Pakistan’s National Anthem and the famous ‘Jazba Junoon’. Earlier, musician Abrarul Haq, who joined PTI the other day, recited a Naat.

Among those who addressed the gathering were ex-federal minister Azam Swati, former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, and lawyer movement leader Hamid Khan.

PTI and national flags were visible all around the venue as well as carried by young, old and children across this mega city on buildings, buses, motorcycles, cars and rickshaws. The entrance to the venue and the main area were divided into four sections, with one for women, another for families, the third for youth and the fourth for the general public with special seating for hundreds of media personnel.

The rally itself was well organised with everyone entering the venue had to go through electronic gates and frisked by volunteers besides nearly 2000 law enforcers were deputed to provide security for the rally.

By Ayaz Amir, an intellectual, seior journalist and sitting MNA of PML (N)

I am feeling small and humbled and almost kicking myself for being such a fool. Imran the man, always larger than life, no one could ignore. But Khan the politician, the would-be national saviour, I found hard to take seriously.

He said the right things but he just wasn’t clicking. The strings which set hearts on fire weren’t being touched. Or so at least it seemed to a jaded observer of the pantomime passing for Pakistani politics. Khan was promising a miracle when the age of miracles was long over.

And then October 30th happened and the very skyline changed. Was I imagining things or had the stars taken on an added lustre? The crowds pouring into the Minar-e-Pakistan grounds – about which it was said the Tehreek would never be able to fill – were possessed by a fervour, a sense of hope, I have not seen these past 30 years.

I questioned a good many of them, men and women, young and old, and they said that they were just tired of the old faces and fed up with the old politics. It was change they wanted, a reversal of the established order of things, and it was their belief, their burning faith, that this only the Khan could deliver. If the jalsa and its carnival atmosphere had a central message it was this. Back in 1967-68 many pundits were slow to read what the coming of Bhutto meant. The same mistake could be made again.

Bhutto arrived on the Pakistani scene like a thunderclap, the PPP founded in1967 and sweeping the polls in West Pakistan three years later, and coming to power after the army’s defeat in the East. But although he achieved much dark clouds lined the horizon and in the shadows a witches’ brew was being prepared. So much so that in five years’ time the stage was set for the long night of Zia’s counter-revolution. Much as the wages of Bhuttoism may be glorified, the Pakistan of today is not Bhutto’s but Zia’s, evil having a longer shelf-life than anything opposed to it.

The Sharifs from day one were lucky, favourites of the establishment, propped up by circumstances as a counterweight to Bhutto’s legacy, and thus arriving at the gates of power early and without too many hassles or heartbreaks. Even Musharraf’s coup in 1999 proved a blessing in disguise as it erased the memory of their many failures and gave them a new lease of life as democracy’s champions.

Khan’s journey has been altogether different. He has been wandering in the wilderness these past 15 years. How heartbreaking must it have been? A lesser man, I think most men, even those of tough fibre, would have quit long ago, seeking a home in the mountains or by the sea. What kept him going? He made mistakes, even grievous ones like rallying to Musharraf’s banner but was man enough to beg public forgiveness and admit that he had been wrong.

The primary virtues are character and tenacity. Other things, including brilliance, follow. A nation whose work ethic has yet to be fully developed has been given a lesson in tenacity. And who knows, for this very reason Khan’s influence may prove more enduring than the flash-in-the-pan effect of Bhutto’s ascendancy.

No other comparison will do. The two leading parties have bulk and the dead hand of tradition on their side. And this is their principal strength which the Tehreek will have to figure out how to neutralise. But they have little else going for them. Bereft of ideas they always were. Now they seem drained of relevance and purpose.

In the heady days of Bhutto’s rise and fall who would have imagined that the day would come when the PPP would be the party of the established order, the mainstay of the status quo. But under Zardari, and in no small measure due to his stewardship, this is the distinction it has attained.

Bizarre as it may sound, the Nawaz League was positioning itself as the challenger of the status quo, St George to Zardari’s dragon, in headier moments even the word revolution playing on its lips. But on the way something happened to spoil this charming narrative. After the 2008 elections the party should have made up its mind which side to be on, but it sought to have the best of both worlds, running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, breathing fire and holy defiance against the PPP at the centre, even as it found itself unable to resist the allure of power in Punjab. There being no such thing as a free lunch, it is now paying the price of this self-inflicted schizophrenia.

Even this would not have mattered but for the spectre at the PML-N’s feast, the nightmare how haunting its waking and sleeping hours: Imran’s emergence from behind the trees not so much as a third force but the principal alternative to the existing order, as represented conjointly by the PPP and the PML-N. Punjab’s massive discontent is finding its focus and expression by gravitating towards him.

Against the backdrop of this change, “Go Zardari go” is a slogan which has lost its relevance. The crowds at the Minar-e-Pakistan seemed to be making no distinction between Zardari and the leadership of the League. Their anger was directed at both equally, or perhaps a bit more at the League because from Zardari from day one they had expected nothing at all. But to catch all this, to catch all the nuances, one had to be there.

Talk of a rainbow coalition. To Imran’s standard are flocking the young and rebellious at heart, students and workers, the educated from both ends of the spectrum – English-medium schools and Urdu-medium schools – working women and smart girls from rich neighbourhoods, and even religious types, there being a fair sprinkling of beards that evening in front of Minar-e-Pakistan.

Political sages, who often get such things wrong, need not worry too much about would-be electables. They are pragmatic souls, instinctively averse to backing lost causes or betting on losing horses. For 15 years they did not consider Imran a serious option. Overnight, as if in a flash, he has begun to figure in their calculations. Now their very pragmatism, sharpened by Imran’s show of power, would be promoting a different line of thought.

So the major parties better beware. Dangerous winds have started blowing across the Punjab landscape (Imran having his work cut out in the other provinces). These winds can be felt most strongly in the triangle which for over two decades has been the N-League’s heartland: Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Lahore. But it is only a matter of time before they turn north, to the Pothohar Plateau and the districts straddling the mighty Indus.

We must not forget the bleakness of the distance traversed. For a decade and a half Imran was out of sync with the times, bawling out a different tune while Pakistani politics was stretched along a different path. Now the constellations have shifted. What was once the call of the wild is now the call of the times, no cry louder or more insistent in Pakistan today than the call for change. The only man fitting the bill as instrument of change is Imran Khan, all the other knights of the political arena exhausted figures, symbols of the discredited past and therefore part of the problem the nation is confronted with.

But nothing happens before its time. It required the events of 1917 for the Bolshevik Revolution to occur, the Ottoman Empire’s defeat and humiliation in 1918-19 for Mustafa Kemal to be summoned to greatness, for Britain to face mortal danger after the German victory over France in 1940 for Churchill to be called to lead the nation. The moment has to be there; it cannot be manufactured. Lahore indicated that Imran’s moment has come.

Can recourse to Habib Jalib stem the incoming tide? For plutocrats to sing his verses is a bit like the Rockefellers belting out the Internationale, or the Bourbons getting emotional over the sounds of the Marseillaise. But the irony probably is lost on them.
Urdu Translation of this remarkable column, below:

Rising above that miasma has been the untainted Khan, railing against a corrupt and broken system night after night, talk show after talk show. Inadvertently and with no grand design at work — remember, the electronic media hadn’t embraced Khan though it promoted the same broader message he had — the comparison between the rot of the old and the glow of the new has ceaselessly been pumped into homes across the country, changing the attitudes and perceptions of people. So Imran Khan’s Pakistan is an already changed Pakistan. The question is, can he sustain and build on that change? Keep reading >>>

Imran Khan did not have the charisma of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or the oratorical skills of Benazir, but what he had, in his simple straightforward words, was something different

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very Heaven! O times...”

Is this not how Englishman William Wordsworth had once summed up his feelings about the French Revolution? But forget about the English and the French, and let’s be honest for once, let’s put those pretensions of cold logic and those million cautions aside and let’s admit: is this not how most of us felt when we saw thousands and thousands of young fearless Pakistanis, stretching as far as the eye could see, waving and singing and dancing along with Shehzad Roy and Strings in PTI’s rally in Lahore? You may not like to admit it but let me admit: this is how I felt; tantalising, tingling sensations of love and joy travelled along my spine; there were moments when I uncontrollably laughed and there were moments when I helplessly cried. But these tears rolling down my cheeks were tears of happiness and relief for the whole of my life from pre-school days till now was flashing and dancing in front of me. And for the first time in many many years — I have lost count how many — I felt that we in Pakistan are neither idiots nor zombies and nor some forgotten children of a lesser God with limited imagination but part of the living humanity of this beautiful blue planet and we have hope!

Imran Khan — whom our mentally challenged liberal elite, in their thinly disguised desperation to appease Washington, had often referred to as ‘Taliban Khan’ — now slapped them with a political rally that made all the difference. It had young men, it had beautiful Pakistani women, it had innocent children and it had music. And these men and women and children entered the historic Minar-e-Pakistan not as bonded or captured Kunta Kinte slaves of Alex Haley transported in commandeered and hijacked public transport forcibly seized by the factotums of the Punjabi bureaucracy but walked on their feet, with poise and discipline, as free humanity. Before and after the American Civil War, researchers and the captains of industry found out that free men are more productive than slaves. The electric enthusiasm of these Pakistanis drawn to the message of a cricket captain also made it clear that they were there for they believed in something; perhaps it was their revulsion to sickening corruption, perhaps it was their desire for national self-respect or perhaps they just wanted to break the cancerous inertia of Pakistani politics, but one thing was clear: these baby boomers, children of Pakistan’s demographic dividend, want change.

The primary assumption of Pakistani politics since the 1980s is that the Pakistani public and voters are some sort of pre-Neanderthal idiots; the secondary assumption is that they will always remain so. It is this duo of assumptions around which the politics of ‘notables’ and ‘electables’ is built. A smart, mature, wise Pakistani politician is thus one who firmly believes in this and preaches the opposite. He knows that elections have to be won by managing a system of petty spoils, biradaris (clans), pirs (holy men) and sajada nasheens (hereditary pirs) and that is why thanedars (policemen), patwaris (land record officers), superintendents of police and district officers are so important to him. This is why a typical winning politician has no need to invest in developing any systematic view of public welfare at the national level. And this is why today none of the major parties has any political message, any national narrative, any idea worth appealing to anyone whose IQ is more than 40. In short, since the 1980s Pakistani politics has no defining ideas that can connect almost 200 million people divided across barriers of age, education, awareness, ethnicity and sectarianism.

This is where Imran Khan’s speech at the Minar-e-Pakistan becomes a turning point in Pakistani politics. I could feel that he did not have the charisma of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or the oratorical skills of Benazir, but what he had, in his simple straightforward words, was something different. He did not spend much time in blasting Nawaz or Zardari, whom he referred to as leaders of the past. Instead, he used his rather brief speech to hint upon a politics of ideas and issues. No doubt abolishing the patwari system or reforming the police are easier said than done, but he has laid the ideas or their seeds on the political table. The absence of usual demagoguery was also remarkable. Pakistani politicians, bereft of overarching ideas, have always gone overboard when they talk of Kashmir, of India, of the US, especially when a pulpit is set in Lahore. But Imran chose his words carefully; no liberation of Kashmir, no befitting responses to India, and no demonisation of the US either. On every issue he said something measured, which made sense and resonated with the demographic dividend spread all around Minar-e-Pakistan and those countless millions who were connected through television screens all across the world like one single organism.

What will happen? Electoral politics does not change overnight. For the PTI and Imran Khan, and Pakistan’s baby boomers, there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. And they have lots of genuine learning to do. The Lahore power play was an effective demonstration of the innate appeal of their message, their ability of strategic communication and their administrative skills, but much more is needed, for the task to rid Pakistan of the politics of non-sense is humungous. Those piranhas of Pakistani politics whose teeth are deep into the flesh of the Pakistani people and their pockets will engineer anything conceivable under the sun to woo their vote banks to maintain their stranglehold on Pakistani politics and the economy and this moment in Lahore has shown them the ‘nightmare trailer’ that will now kickstart a new behind-the-scenes campaign to contain Imran Khan and his demographic dividend.

But one thing is certain: politics will change. The PPP may be able to manoeuvre and shield its safe vote banks in interior Sindh and the Seraiki belt from this new wave in politics but what about the PML-N? Whether Nawaz and Shahbaz have realised it or not, after this PTI power play in Lahore, PMN-L stalwarts are standing in a Turkish hamaam (steam bath) without towels. For three years they had chosen careful rhetoric to painstakingly build an identity around anti-Zardari sloganeering, against corruption and for hyper-nationalism, but the practical demands of politics and repeated compromises drained all credibility from their strategic communications and now a new untainted entity has emerged representing all what they had stood for. Today the PML-N leadership stands upon a dead heap of old loyalties and expectations of the spoils, but in weeks and months the emerging sense of change will trickle down across the Punjabi towns. Shahbaz Sharif’s recent mantras of Habib Jalib and his inability to understand that he does not fit into Jalib’s revolutionary context only showed how seriously disconnected they have been from the emerging reality around them. It is time for Pakistani politics to pause, readjust and reinvent itself. This is what Imran Khan and his followers have achieved in Lahore.

The writer is a political analyst and a TV anchorperson. He can be reached at director@media-policy.com

Now many failed parties or those that are being threatened to be sidelined would be coming forward to form some alliance or some traditional turncoats would rush to get the party nominations; this Imran will have to see very carefully and not damage the spirit of PTI followers and supporters. Imran listen to your supporters they will guide you and you will never lose them otherwise it could be a one way ticket..... http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/11/imran-khan-the-new-option/comment-page-1/#comment-17892

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Imran changes set trend, PI attracts almost 400,000 people - International News Network

Lahore: Imran Khan, the Chairman of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) held a successful show at Minar-e-Pakistan as the independent analysists were of the view that almost 350,000 to 400,000 people were present in the PTI public gathering.

The young generation especially students of different educational institutions participated in the PTI’s Save Pakistan Rally in a large number, which were charged to bring political change in the country. The rally was well-organized and disciplined as no disruptive behaviour or rowdiness was seen during the entire rally.

Imran Khan, for the first time in the history of Pakistan changed the trend of political gatherings as most popular singers presented their performance live during the rally at Minar-e-Pakistan. One more thing was seen that the traditional outcome of the people was not there but people came alongwith their families and children in the rally. As a matter of fact the gathering was transformed into a family funfair.

LAHORE: Imran Khan has been labouring it out in the political wilderness for 15 long years. Sometimes appearing a natural liberal, at times a forced conservative, but forever irking his political opponents with his cheeky condescending smile. But while he always seemed to be just around the corner, he had never really arrived. It all changed on the slightly nippy autumn Sunday evening.

Let there be no doubts. Imran Khan and his PTI have arrived politically, and with a real bang. In one bold stroke, which was being described by many pundits as a needless and possibly fatal risk, he stood transformed from a promising political power to a threatening electoral force. During his cricketing days, Imran had the knack to prove a game changer, it now seems he just may be able to do that also in the much more complex game of politics.

The massive rally will indeed be the flavour of the day on news channels for a couple of days and has already served the purpose of serving notice on all who refused to take it ‘real seriously’ but its real dividends will start coming in over the next few months.

The mind blowing show of popularity would have already made it real easy for a large number of undecided political heavyweights and fence huggers to come down on Imran’s side and fill the only lacunae in his political machine: that of not having a battery of local ‘winnable’ candidates.

The coming days will surely witness a sea change on this front as PTI will now be perceived as a fairly-good electoral ticket. Surely, Shah Mahmood Qureshi must also be feeling a bit sorry for not making up his mind a bit earlier.

The impressive show will also strengthen Imran’s hand in his ongoing parlays with the good-clean-politicians group which supposedly also enjoys the critical support of powers-that-be and powers that are expected to play a critical role in the coming days.

As for the rally, it was rightly described as a tsunami by a beaming Imran. You had to be there to feel the passion of the massive crowd. And what a crowd it was. From the snotty families of “Jurassic park” to the typical colourful youngsters of inner Lahore, the mix was predominantly young and amazing. You had to be on ground to see one human wave after another pouring into the sprawling greens of Minar-e-Pakistan.

I have covered a number of rallies in this park, which is infamous for gobbling up many a political fortunes because of its sheer size, and Sunday’s rally brought back memories of BB’s return from exile during Zia days. It’s a ground where you bring in fifty thousand and it appears like five but Imran packed it to capacity. I leaned over to senior journalist Mujeebur Rehman Shami and asked him about the crowd and he said that in his opinion the crowd was even bigger than the last big one gathered here by late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Even a close comparison would have sufficed actually but to say it could have even been bigger says it all. Why were the crowds so big, why the passion so infectiously intoxicating, one wonders? The mood was amazingly different from that of the PML-N rally a day earlier (I attended that as well). Walking around then I had felt swamped by immense anger and hatred for PPP and President Zardari, but it was more like a self-consuming swell of dark rage. The Imran crowd was different in the sense that while one felt the disenchantment with the corrupt rulers and an unmistakable sense of being denied a decent existence, there was a lot of optimism and a brimming confidence about change, or at least the promise of one. The exuberance of youth made all the difference and surely Imran’s opponents should be taking note of the force that he seems to be harnessing fairly well.

As for the speech itself, it too signalled a much more mature politician. The crowd pleasing rowdy remarks were few and far between and it sounded more like an election campaign speech with Imran spelling out his priorities and promises. But three things stood out. One, that despite all his foaming and fuming he could still be friends with the United States, “but without being a slave”.

Second, he talked about leading a campaign of civil disobedience against the government and thirdly, his criticism of Pakistan’s ambassador to United States. In an interesting development, while nobody spoke about the Zardari memo issue during the past 18 days, during the past 48 hours alone we have heard from the Foreign Office, the president’s spokesman, Imran Khan and even from the beleaguered ambassador as well.

During the past 48 hours, Shahbaz Sharif also talked about leading his flock to Islamabad after Muharram and with Imran speaking the same lingo, anything could happen. A lot is happening, covertly and overtly, on the political and not so political fronts but the moment surely belongs to Imran Khan. Sunday may have been an off day for the others but for Imran, it was surely his best day in office.

Poets like Allama Iqbal identified the pulse of the disenfranchised Muslims in South Asia. Faiz Ahmed Faiz took that spirit to define more progressive causes for Pakistanis. Though not a poet, Imran Khan has captured that sense of loss for the youth of Pakistan and given them hope

There are a few reasons I have converted to becoming an Imran Khan supporter, as opposed to choosing to not exercise my vote.

Before this my main contention with him was that he spoke of the Taliban as if they were a negotiating party and not a group of people believing in an exclusivist ideology with violent means of enforcing it. This view was formed by misreading what Imran Khan was saying all along — that we have to rehabilitate a significant part of our population and re-educate them by bringing them closer to the mainstream. This tone is justified, given that there cannot be a military solution to an ideological battle that is fought through capturing the imagination of young impressionable minds.

After having seen the bloodbath of terrorist attacks in the cities of Pakistan, where my children go to school, it is evident that we have to find a more permanent solution to the problem — a solution that cuts to the fermenting hostilities that generate steam for the terrorist movement and simultaneously present a viable alternative.

On his game-changing political rally at the Minar-e-Pakistan on October 30 in Lahore, Imran Khan did both.

The first reason for my conversion is because Pakistan has lost significantly to the crisis of credibility. Having worked in the Investment Promotion Industry both at the provincial and federal level I know this: the major reason for an absence in investor confidence is because when any deal is at its finalisation stage, the cost of the project becomes undefined because of potential facilitation fees that a large investor would need to account for in order to speed up bureaucratic delays.

This is never overt, but the pressure to close a deal simply is not as urgent as it ought to be because the people at the top want the political mileage of having brought the project to the country more than they want results. Imran Khan, with an established success as a cricketer, philanthropist and educationist, is free of the need for such credit and furthermore he has a spotless financial credibility. With him in power there will not only be the pressure to move projects forward from feasibility stages to land finalisation to operations but also have the inviting openness of a genuinely friendly investment regime.

Pakistan’s investment woes stem not from its business environment — Pakistan ranks better than BRIC (Brazil, India, Russia and China) countries in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report in enforcing contracts and other such indicators — but from its inability to present a truly one-window operation led by a government that delivers its promise. Often a one-window operation set up in the form of Investment Promotion Agencies becomes ‘one more’ window that the investors have to pass through to reach their ultimate objective.

The second reason is because we need to reconcile the role of Islam in our politics. Religion makes people in the subcontinent tick. It is something that forms their psychology, their beliefs and their day. Nowhere is this more evident than in our language. Imran Khan, to ensure that we do indeed have the same God, has taken to a more right approach to his political slogans, but the actual objective is seemingly not to rally religious masses but to restore the loss of dignity that people have felt in the way foreign policy has been handled. Poets like Allama Iqbal identified the pulse of the disenfranchised Muslims in South Asia. Faiz Ahmed Faiz took that spirit to define more progressive causes for Pakistanis. Though not a poet, Imran Khan has captured that sense of loss for the youth of Pakistan and given them hope.

Around 65 percent people in Pakistan are below the age of 30, and this is far too significant a population bulge to toss away to a spiritless existence as they will inevitably battle unemployment and hyper-inflated educational packages.

Thirdly, there is a truckload of humanity in Imran Khan’s agenda. When was the last time we actually had a person at a podium facing over a hundred thousand, stand up and advocate more humane treatment and remuneration for household servants in Pakistan? The thought has probably not even crossed the minds of the leadership, mostly representative of the feudal, industrial or the street power. Pakistan’s domestic industry’s oppression is a severe problem that needs to have a protective safeguard. Moreover, there was a positive use of Islam in Imran Khan’s address where he said that women in Islam are given the right to property whereas Pakistani cultural practices discourage it, and that needed to be changed.

These are my reasons. Three reasons are not too many, but they are enough to cause a tipping point.

The writer is based in Lahore. She can be reached at aisha_sarwari@yahoo.com

Imran Khan is no more a cricketer turned politician. He has suddenly become an important regional player in the US endgame in Afghanistan. A mind-blowing public rally of Imran Khan in Lahore on October 30 made it very difficult for the Zardari regime to give new commitments or accept any demands from the US to push its decade-long war against terror. Imran Khan has not only become a threat for traditional political parties inside Pakistan but is also going to become a big hurdle in the implementation of demands made by US during the recent visit of Hillary Clinton to Islamabad.

The PTI leader criticised not only President Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif but also blasted US policies in the biggest-ever show of political power in Lahore in the past 25 years. The last time Lahore saw this kind of political tsunami was on April 10, 1986 when late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned after many years in exile. A big reception to the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a bombshell for the then military dictator. Benazir Bhutto addressed a big rally in Iqbal Park, adjacent to the historical Lahore Fort. That rally was the beginning of General Zia’s end.

The October 30 rally by Imran Khan in the same Iqbal Park also looked like an end of pro-US policies started by General Pervez Musharraf ten years ago. Imran addressed US Secretary of State as “Chachi Clinton” (Aunty Clinton) and said a big no to any more army operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas. It will now be impossible for the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and its coalition partners to start new operations in North Waziristan or even continue the old operations from South Waziristan to Khyber Agency. Elections are close and no political government can take the risk of going against public opinion.

Hillary Clinton is these days desperately looking for someone who can become a bridge between Afghan Taliban and the US. Imran Khan can make some serious efforts in this regard but is more focused on the situation inside Pakistan. He has offered his services for the engagement of Pakistani Taliban but wants assurances that there will be no more military operations.

Imran said all this just one day before the meeting of President Asif Ali Zardari with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Istanbul. The US has arranged this meeting through Turkish President Abdullah Gull for the success of the Istanbul conference. Army Chief General Kayani also left for Turkey on Monday. Afghan officials will discuss the US endgame with Pakistan, India, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, UAE, Turkey, US and UK in Istanbul Conference from November 1.

The US wants some commitments from Pakistan at this conference and that is why the Pakistani Army Chief is also invited to this conference. However, Imran Khan’s massive anti-American rally has made it very difficult for Pakistani leaders to oblige their friends from Saudi Arabia and Turkey who have became part of the process on the US request.

Imran criticised the Army operations in the tribal areas in very strong words. He clearly said some tribal elders had given him assurances that if US drone attacks were stopped and the Pakistan Army halted operations in the tribal areas they would control all militants. Imran Khan also arranged meetings of these tribal elders (mostly from North Waziristan) with his ex-wife Jemima Khan who is making a documentary against drone attacks.

Jemima and Imran are separated but often meet because of their two sons. An American lawyer Clive Smith is also helping Jemima and they are planning a big campaign against drone attacks in the Western media. Jemima writes for Vanity Fair magazine. She is helping not only Imran but also Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, and Assange may also speak at the inauguration of documentary against drone attacks. The documentary is expected to have a lot of “WikiLeaks”. Imran Khan has repeatedly said, “Pakistan has changed”. He threatened, “I will not spare anyone who gave Pakistani bases to US and sold my people for dollars”.

Without naming Pervez Musharraf he sent him a message not to come back to Pakistan. He also said: “We want friendly relations with every country but we cannot accept slavery of America”. Imran Khan came out openly in support of the Kashmiris and advised India to withdraw its troops from Kashmir.

He tried to satisfy the central Punjab voters who are not happy with the soft stance of Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on India. This hawkish stance will definitely bring him closer to the military establishment but he opposes military action in Balochistan. He also criticised the role of Pakistan Army in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in his recently published book “Pakistan a Personal History”.

According to the sources in Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) more than a dozen ambassadors from different Western countries wanted to see Imran Khan this week but he left for China immediately after addressing the mammoth public rally in Lahore on Sunday night. He will be a guest of the Chinese government. His opponents often declared him “Taliban Khan” or the “modern face of Jamat-i-Islami” but hundreds of thousands of people enjoyed the songs of many popular singers in the Lahore rally. For some critics it became a grand musical show but the fact is that the crowd enjoyed the music at a public place after a very long time. Pakistan has many popular pop singers but they cannot sing at public places due to fear of suicide bombings that started in 2007. There was a suicide attack on the musical show of Sono Nagam sometime back in Karachi and after that many pop singers were threatened not to sing at public places. Many singers like Adnan Sami, Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar tried their luck in India in recent years but now they can come back.

Imran Khan is bringing back not only the political activities on the roads but also encouraging many pop singers like Shehzad Roy to sing publicly who made songs against drone attacks. Roy presented his famous song ‘uth bandh kamar kya darta hey phir dekh Khuda kya karta hey” in the Sunday rally. Thousands of youngsters were dancing on this song and Imran was clapping with them.

Imran Khan is becoming the voice of the common Pakistanis who are neither religious extremists not secular fascists. He is becoming a ray of hope for those disgruntled youngsters who have started hating democracy due to bad governance and corruption. These youngsters can now bring about a change in Pakistan through their vote power. Youth is the real power of Imran Khan and this youth belongs to the lower middle, middle class. This is the most disillusioned class in Pakistan but now the youth of this class is becoming active, which is a positive sign.

Dozens of sitting parliamentarians are contacting Imran Khan for joining his PTI. Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and many political big shots will make some shocking decisions soon but Imran is more interested in young blood and well-educated minds.

He warned the government on Sunday that all politicians must declare their assets inside and outside Pakistan within a few months failing which his party would launch a civil disobedience movement and block all major cities with public support. For many analysts he is emerging as the third option after Zardaris’s PPP and Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N.

Some say he will ruin Nawaz Sharif in the central Punjab and PPP would be the ultimate beneficiary. Imran does not agree with this analysis. He always criticises PPP and PML-N jointly because one is ruling at the centre and the other is ruling Punjab, which is more than 60 percent of Pakistan. Imran has definitely proved that he enjoys more political support in Lahore than Nawaz Sharif but it does not mean that he is going to get clear majority in the coming elections. He needs some winning horses not only in the central Punjab but also in south Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan and Sindh.

He needs big rallies in Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta and then he can make some bigger claims. He will definitely make dents not only in the vote bank of PML-N but will also damage the PPP badly. There are 25 seats of national assembly in Lahore division of which PML-N has 20, PPP has 3 and PML-Q has one. Imran may snatch at least half of the PML-N and all the seats won by PPP and PML-Q in Lahore. Out of 23 seats in Gujranwala division PML-N has 13, PPP 8 and PML-Q has 2. Imran will damage PPP and PML-Q more than PML-N in Gujranwala. There are 20 seats in Faisalabad division - PML-N has only 4 while PML-Q has 8 and PPP has 7 seats.

Many sitting members of the national assembly from Faisalabad are pleading to Imran to accept them in his party. Some PPP, PML-Q and ANP members from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are also in contact with Imran, which means that his popularity is not confined to Punjab.

His biggest stronghold in the north is the tribal area where he is expected to make a clean sweep and more than 10 seats are in his pocket. This is the same area where he will not allow government to start any new Army operations.

If there is no operation then what will be the future of Pakistan-US relations? Zardari regime is at the crossroads. There is US pressure from one side and the PTI pressure from the other.

Nawaz Sharif was trying to play safe by targeting only Zardari and not the US but Imran Khan has suddenly changed the political dynamics in Pakistan. He is the new trouble man for US and also for the pro-US political elite in Pakistan. All the popular parties have no option other than to follow his anti-Americanism.

Hillary Clinton needs to realise the wave of change in Pakistani politics. She cannot understand this change without engaging Imran Khan. October 30 was just a beginning. World will see more changes on the political map of Pakistan and Imran Khan will play a leading role.

THE rallies have been staged. As expected, the PML-N, the party in power in Punjab which has been once again trying to sell itself as the alternative to the PPP at the centre, has exposed itself to some serious comparisons with Imran Khan by holding its show of strength so close to one by PTI.

Mr Khan had nothing to lose. In the event he has emerged from the rally considerably stronger. Whether he has paced his innings right remains to be seen. Faced with a dilemma, the PML-N may now want to prolong its rule in Punjab instead of going for an early showdown with the PPP. The PML-N needs time to consolidate its defences against this new, potent enough threat.

The expert analysts have so far remained too obsessed with an apparent lack of vote-winning candidates in the Imran camp, too obsessed perhaps with the old theories based on vote banks. Mr Khan needed a big show of strength where he was the only star attraction to remind the observers that the Pakistanis essentially vote for the top man or woman. It is doubtful whether even Shahbaz Sharif would be able to name all the Lahore MPAs who won in the 2008 election — as PML-N nominees, but actually because they were wearing the Sharif badge.

The numbers have been out to support Mr Khan, and in the heart of Punjab, aiding all those who must not presuppose. After the grand Imran rally at the Minar, the Sharifs, as well as the bystanders who go by the title of PPP politicians, need no further proof they have a worthy opponent to take care of.

There are a variety of factors contributing to the PTI rally on Sunday and to the growing unease in the Sharif camp, with a lame-duck PPP keeping away from political activity in the province at its own peril. A quick recap of some of these factors would be useful here.

1) As recent good politics goes, Mr Khan comes from the same camp as the Sharifs. The two parties won plenty of popular points with their support for the free judiciary. This gives their own battle in Punjab the colour of a factional fight, a much-awaited challenge from within the Sharifs have never faced before. The lesser-Muslim, lesser-Pakistani, non-Punjabi, anti-free judiciary tag doesn’t quite fit Mr Khan whose show at the Minar was typically dismissed by the PML-N as a song and dance party. A significant part of the pro-judiciary caravan, comprising students, professionals such as teachers, doctors etc who have had more than a few complaints against the Shahbaz Sharif government allies itself with Imran Khan; the students and the professionals were there in large numbers at the PTI rally on Sunday.

2) For now, the PTI chief’s support chiefly comes from the same urban areas of Punjab considered to be the Sharif stronghold which catapulted Nawaz Sharif to prominence as a national leader.

3) A few of the kingmakers who had once been so active on the Sharifs’ behalf have in recent times been spotted flanking Imran Khan. The Sharifs cannot be faulted for feeling wary of being tailed by him on the path they have themselves walked. Tellingly, Chaudhry Nisar’s statement the other day in which he said the army should not intervene confuses a lot of likely PML-N backers since it came only days after the top PML-N leadership vowed to try ‘all’ options to oust President Zardari. At the same time, there is this suspicion that some of their old backers who could mediate on their behalf have this cleaner patriotic option in Imran Khan.

4) Mr Khan has the potential to cash in on the widespread anti-America sentiment. The Sharifs were working on the assumption that the PPP, given its power needs, could never rival the safe PML-N play on this count. Shahbaz Sharif has been inclined to issue an anti-drone statement from time to time, his range rather limited since the PML-N with its own knowledge of the power game wouldn’t want to upset the Americans too much.

5) The PML-N is hopeful the ‘corruption’ and ‘blunders’ at the centre would hide its own shortcomings in Punjab. The fact is a visible anti-incumbency sentiment exists in Punjab. Denied the benefit it draws from a comparison with the PPP in Islamabad, the PML-N this time around has created quite a lot of ill will generally and in specific groups such as the bureaucracy, doctors, teachers, etc.

6) There is talk the PML-N leadership’s relationship with its senior members is far from how it once was. Bruised by the betrayal after the 1999 coup, this time the Sharifs have increased their dependence on the close family-friends circle around them. This has led to greater centralisation of command in Punjab, with the chief minister unwilling to share power through its delegation. This leads to grumbling within the PML-N legislators and conveys a negative message to the people in the constituencies who increasingly want to be represented.

7) Then there is the support of the media and ‘intelligentsia’ to Mr Khan. Even if the conspiracy theories that link his rise with the support of (parts of the) establishment are to be ignored, the media finds concentrated around him a variety of points that sell. His clean image sells, his less-inhibited anti-Americanism sells and so do his free-judiciary stance and his popularity among the trendsetting youth. Whereas it is accused of being urban-centric, the media has been instrumental in closing the much talked about but actually shrinking gap between the cities and villages. The PML-N has merrily ridden the new-wave media in its power dispute with the PPP and it surely doesn’t approve of the coverage given to Mr Khan. In the lead-up to the two rallies on Oct 28 and Oct 30, PML-N members visited the offices of television channels in Lahore. They complained of the TV channels’ bias for the PTI chief. Their fears must have been reinforced with the passionate media commentaries on the PTI rally on Oct 30, as opposed to the rather routine reporting of the PML-N rally a couple of days earlier.

These factors — and there are scores of others that make up the political discussion right now — combine to spell out the desire for change among large sections of the Pakistani people. There is this desire to break away from the past, and the violent tone adopted by Shahbaz Sharif at the Oct 28 rally was a bad advertisement for his kind of politics since it was interpreted by the wary and the tired as a sign of a continuation of the long-drawn duel with the PPP.

This desire for change found a manifestation in the presence of old PML-N and PPP workers at the Oct 30 rally. The PTI chief has the material to work with, and one way of doing it would be for him to right now shun any alliances that could suggest to his supporters that he is in any way perpetuating the very politics that he set out to end.

It is after a very long time that news of hope has come from Pakistan. I recieved the following letter from a friend. And all the people I have talked to, confirm that Imran's rally at the Minar-e-Pakistan was both huge and enthusiastic, despite the utmost efforts of the Punjab government that it should fail. For me this is great news, because if this tide gains momentum, it will mean that for the first time our voters will vote against plunder, and vote for a person who has given something back to his country. I have often heard cynics question Imran's ability to govern. When they make this observation they forget that Nawaz Sharif, with the IQ of a barnyard owl has been our Prime Minister, not once, but twice, and our present PM and President have no claim to fame, other than their insatiable greed, which has bankrupted our country.

Salams all,

It was wonderful to wake up to great news from Pk for a change.

Estimates of the number of people at the PTI Minar-e-Pakistan rally vary:100,000 to 200,000

Unlike the middle aged patwaris at the Sharif rally, this one was attended largely by the youth, which if energized to vote can make any party win for they are in the majority by population (over 2/3rds of the population of Pk is below 25 I believe)

People came from far and wide, even the handicapped came! And many many more were prevented from coming.

No politician, even the brilliant Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, is/was without issues. Imran Khan inshaallah will be the balm and the hope for the seemingly interminable pain and despondency of the Pakistani people.

I just became a member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Please become a member, click onwww.insaf.pk

And for all those that do not share my opinion and optimism, let us as professionals, agree to disagree and be parliamentary in our discourse :)